


Twisted Fate

by Spunky0ne



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 12:10:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14790284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spunky0ne/pseuds/Spunky0ne
Summary: Two gifted royal children separated by tragedy but sharing a single fate. When the future of the worlds hangs in the balance, can they find the answer that will save everyone? THE AIZEN STORY YOU NEED TO READ!





	Twisted Fate

(In the royal palace)

A terrified shriek shattered the stillness, bringing the soul king and consort awake. Kuchiki Hajime brushed the tumbled black hairs out of his eyes and looked around questioningly as Reio's arm wrapped protectively around him. More cries sounded, growing louder and being joined by others as the threat closed in on the surprised royal couple.

"Quickly!" the king warned his noble mate, touching his fingers to his forehead for a moment and feeling a little chill inside at the content of the vision that flashed in front of him.

He concentrated for a moment, his iridescent eyes glowing. A bright multicolored prism slowly formed over the king's extended hand. He handed it to Hajime, who gave him a worried look as he accepted the powerful artifact.

"You know what you must do," Reio said, kissing Hajime on the forehead, then gently on his frowning mouth.

"I understand," the consort assured him, "I will trust you, of course."

"It will be all right, my love," Reio assured him, "Take the prism safely into the gardens. Immerse it in the healing pool. Whatever happens, do not let anything stop you!"

Hajime nodded adamantly and flash stepped to the balcony. He jumped onto the rail. Looking back through widened blue eyes as the door to their bedroom crashed open and a sleek black, golden-eyed creature burst into the room. The king raised his hands in front of him, conjuring a protective seal that forced the advancing monster back several steps. The beast fixed its eyes on Hajime's retreating form and swung an arm in the consort's direction, loosing three swift, wiry bodies that raced after him. The king reacted instantly, sending a flash of intense power across the room, but just missing the three smaller demons that continued to chase Hajime.

"Your royal plaything is as good as dead!" the more powerful demon hissed, advancing on the king and bringing his own power to bear.

Power exploded out of his clawed hands, shattering the protective seal between the two, and the demon lunged at Reio, slashing wildly and howling lustily.

Hajime bounded down from the balcony and flash stepped across the grass, his blue eyes focused intently on the entrance to the king's garden that laid just ahead of him. He felt the heat of his pursuers on his back and added more speed, holding the prism tightly against him. The flowers and hedges became a colorful blur as he raced towards the king's healing pool, followed closely by the deadly fast lesser demons.

_They aren't as fast as their master, Hajime reasoned, but they are plenty dangerous, nonetheless. Their claws and teeth, like the greater demon's are coated in a horrific, transformative reiatsu. If corrupted by it, the victim can only be spared by being immersed in the depths of the healing pool. I must reach it and place myself and the prism within it!_

He poured all of his effort into closing the distance to the pool as the demons blazed after him. He was nearly there when he spotted several of the royal guards, standing in between him and the pool, their teeth turned into fangs and their fingers deformed into sharp, threatening claws.

_Oh no!_

He skidded to a stop, then launched his slender body into the air, veering aside to miss the slashing claws that reached for him. He fell towards the pool, breathing a sigh of relief as he came closer to his goal.

_It will be all right. The immersed prism will recall and purify our souls if we are brought down by the enemy. As soon as it touches the water…_

A pained gasp escaped him as something raked across his back, bringing him down just short of his goal. He turned swiftly, stiffening as his shocked eyes met the glowing red orbs of the corrupted king.

"Reio!" he managed, tears flooding his eyes.

In a last, desperate move, he cast the prism at the healing pool, Only to watch it strike a blood red shield that soared in from the corrupted king's hand. Undeterred, the consort fired a blast of kido, shattering the shield and forcing the prism through. A loud crack sounded, and corrupted king and his injured consort watched as the artifact split into two and fell into the water. White light exploded from the pool, wrapping around the royal couple and sucking their bloodied forms into the pool. The water swirled wildly as the greater demon walked to the edge and scowled down at it.

_It broke? What does this mean?_

He watched with a darkly curious expression as the pool shined suddenly with golden light, and a heavy seal rose out of the pool, surrounding it and forcing the demons back. The beasts screeched and fled as the light illuminated the whole of the castle grounds, leaving everything within suspended…unmoving…carefully frozen…

And waiting.

XXXXXXXXXX

Chapter 1: The Haunted Grove

(800 years later, in the low Rukongai)

The light was fading in the sky as the old healer's wife, Noa, finished the last preparations and set dinner on the table. She washed her hands and wiped them on a soft cloth, then sat down at the table and poured their tea. A smile lit her weathered face and her light blue eyes twinkled as her husband's footsteps sounded on the walkway outside their house, then the door creaked open and the aged Rukongai healer stepped inside.

"Ah, you're finally here," his wife greeted him, "I have supper ready. Go and clean up."

She waited quietly as he washed his face and hands at the sink, then joined her at the table.

"You look tired, Michio, dear," she commented, "Is the group of children down by the river doing better?"

"They are recovering," the old man yawned sleepily, "It was a close shave for a couple of the younger ones, but they came through all right. I would have been home sooner, but cleansing their camp took awhile, and I wanted to make sure their guards were strong enough to actually protect them."

"Poor things," Noa said sympathetically, "It's not enough that fate robbed all of their families from them. Their struggles just to survive break my heart. If I could take every one of them."

"I feel the same," the old healer sighed, "but we can't do more than we already do. So, we will just keep doing what we can."

Noa looked out the window to where Sokyoku Hill of the Seireitei shined in the distance.

"It is a crime that they live there in such luxury, and they care nothing for the ones who are so poor."

Michio shrugged.

"They are noble lords and ladies. I doubt the suffering of the common folk crosses their minds that much."

Noa gave him a dismissive look.

"Kuchiki Hajime was the very first of the nobles, and he never, ever would have overlooked anyone's suffering."

Michio found himself smiling nostalgically at the mention of the Kuchiki progenitor.

"It is said," Noa went on, "that the healing gifts all come from him, and that his kindness inspires the truly selfless. If there ever was a noble heart, it beat first in Kuchiki Hajime's chest. And when he fell, he cast his heart into the king's healing pool, to share his gift with all of us, so that good would always exist in our worlds."

She studied her husband's approving face, and the glimmer of returned strength that her words had brought him.

"You honor him every day by trying to help the ones here."

"I do my best," the old man sighed, taking a sip of his tea, "I just wish there were more of us here. The ones that come from the fourth division to help sometimes are spread out, over the three hundred twenty districts. There is only so much that they can do. We need more protectors to hold off the hollows from attacking and diseases from ravaging, but it is a never ending quandary."

"Well, it may be a quandary, but neither the hollows nor disease have won today."

"Hai," the old man agreed, pulling a little flask from within his vest pocket and taking a little swig while his wife wasn't looking, "We'll take the little victories and do the best we…"

Michio fell silent as a strange, bright light flashed out side, lighting up their home for a moment as something shook the ground. The two came to their feet, heading to the window and looking out into the darkness, where they found a light still shining amidst a foggy wooded area.

"What in kami's name was that?" the old man mused.

The two donned cloaks and slipped out, into the night, following the path of the light to where it leaked out from amidst the trees. The old couple exchanged anxious glances, then Michio took a step towards the light. Noa gasped and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, "That forest is haunted with strange beasts and very odd reiatsu. If you go in, you might not come back out."

"Didn't you hear it?" Michio asked, "That crying?"

"Crying?" the old woman mused, straining her ears.

Her breath caught as the little sound reached her.

"Kami, little things in there?" she whispered, moving with the old healer as he continued to head towards the sound.

The two moved cautiously forward, into the foggy trees, their hands clasping and their worried eyes scanning the area around them. Little sounds echoed strangely in the darkness around them, but nothing approached them as they closed the distance to the crying sounds they had heard.

"Best hope it's not a siren hollow or a changeling," Noa breathed anxiously, "They've lured more than a few to their deaths."

"Stay close, now," Michio warned her.

They came to a clearing and stopped, blinking at the brightness of the light that radiated around two small infants that laid on the ground, wrapped in tattered rags. One light haired with pale eyes and one dark haired and dark eyed.

"I'll be…" Michio managed, moving forward and extending a hand toward the light that seemed to be protecting the two babies.

He examined the area around them closely.

"Someone's set a protective barrier," the old healer mused, "Noa, come and stay here with them."

"You're not wandering off into the forest!" his wife objected.

"No," he assured her, "I just want to examine the area.

Noa frowned, but she moved forward and stood beside the protected babies, her eyes watchful as Michio scanned the edges of the clearing for signs of anyone else's passage.

"Do you see anything?" the old woman asked.

"No," Michio said in a mystified tone, "I don't see any sign of anyone being here."

He finished his examination of the area, then returned to his wife's side.

"That suggests that these babies were sent here from somewhere else, probably to protect them."

"So, someone will come for them?"

Michio studied the area around them.

"I don't know. In any case, we aren't safe, standing out here in the night. I will see about the shielding, then we can take them back to our home and find them someone to care for them in the morning. There are a couple of groups that may be willing to take them."

Michio moved to the side of the protective chamber around the two infants and extended a hand, not touching, but bringing his power to bear and making the little barrier fade. Noa smiled and picked up the blonde haired baby, while her husband collected the brown haired boy.

"Such a shame," Noa sighed, "They are beautiful little things."

"Don't even start with me, Noa," Michio chuckled, "although…they are cute little things, aren't they? Too bad the lower Rukongai will take the sweetness out of them. If I was a hundred years younger…"

"Well, we aren't," Noa chided him, "We'll find them a home, don't worry."

The two walked back out of the forest, carrying the babies back to their house, where they laid them in cribs that they kept for their patients' use.

"Ah," Michio sighed, sitting back down at the table and watching with affectionate eyes as Noa prepared two bottles for the babies, "you know, I was thinking about Mika, the girl a few districts up who just lost her child."

"That's right," Noa mused, "They probably couldn't take both, but the little blonde boy looks like the baby she lost. Maybe she'll take to him."

"That would be good for both of them if she did," Michio reasoned, "She's barely said a word since, and hasn't been eating. Maybe being matched up with this little one who's lost his family…"

"That's a good idea," Noa agreed, "You can take him out to see her tomorrow. But, what about his…well, I guess we don't know if these are kin. They look so different, but you don't know, I suppose."

"We'd keep them together if it was possible, but there's just not enough homes for all of the ones left alone down here."

"So, what will we do with the brown haired boy?" Noa asked.

"Well," the old man said, scratching the back of his neck, "if we gather an offering of food to trade for a favor, one of the more stable street groups may take him in."

"Most of them are just children, themselves, dear," Noa said anxiously.

"That's true," Michio agreed, "But really, we can't keep either one of them. We're barely able to keep ourselves fed, and we need to be fed so that we can heal these folks. I'd like to do more, but this is the low Rukongai. We all struggle here."

Noa nodded and picked up the blonde baby, while her husband took the brown haired baby and the two began to feed their little charges from the gently warmed bottles.

"Kami bless them," Noa sighed, "They're so helpless."

"Maybe now," Michio agreed, "but if they want to live to grow up, they'll learn to survive. We'll do what we can to help them."

He sighed again, shaking his head.

"It's the best we can do."


End file.
